The second summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ended at noon today [February 28] with no agreement on denuclearization. 
US President Donald Trump and State Secretary Mike Pompeo at the press conference in Hanoi February 28. Photo: Politico
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According to media, Kim wanted all sanctions lifted and Trump couldn’t agree. Kim’s vision of denuclearization doesn’t match Trump’s.
“Basically they wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety, and we couldn’t do that,” he said at a press conference in Hanoi shortly after the meeting.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Kim Jong Un was “unprepared” to meet US demands but he is still optimistic.
After the summit with North Korean leader Kim ended without agreement, a South Korean government official told CNN “we’re as perplexed as the world now.” “The whole world was waiting for an agreement and so were we,” the official added.
The South Korean stock market fell on the news of the summit’s early end, closing down 1.8%.
Acknowledging that the summit in Hanoi ended with no deal due to sanctions, President Trump, however, said he wanted to see the economic restrictions lifted on North Korean in the future.
He has repeatedly highlighted North Korea’s economic potential during the summit in Hanoi and meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to CNN.
Fleet vehicle carrying Kim Jong Un leaves the summit venue. Photo: Vietnamplus
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Analysts around the world are reacting to the abrupt end of the negotiations in Hanoi.
“It is little wonder these negotiations broke down after Trump has spent more time in office blowing up nuclear treaties than building them,” said Akira Kawasaki of the International Committee to Abolish Nuclear Weapons’ International Steering Group.
“We need a real plan rooted in the international community and treaties like the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which the Koreas could join tomorrow and begin the disarmament process with legitimacy.”
Van Jackson, author of “On the Brink: Trump, Kim, and the Threat of Nuclear War”, said that the US should have waited to hold the summit until progress had been made “at the Biegun level”, referring to the US negotiator on the Korean Peninsula, Steve Biegun.
In a statement, the Korea Peace Network, which has supported Khanna’s resolution, said “failure to reach an agreement should not be taken as a sign that diplomacy is not working.”
President Trump said at the press conference that he has not committed to a third summit between himself and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
